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baumer

Terminator

By baumer, in Review That Movie! (Spoilers Allowed)

  

48 members have voted

  1. 1. Grade Terminator


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75Live Global Phenomenon

75Live

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First and best Terminator movie. Give me any of the detailed talks between Reese and Sarah over those giant action scenes anyday.

I completely agree. I do like the 2nd one as well, but to me, this one is the best.
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IndustriousAngel Blockbuster

IndustriousAngel

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Classic small-scale action cinema. Career-defining for Arnold and Cameron. Fast-paced where necessary but Cameron also gives time to the characters. Looking at this today you would never guess that the budget was below 7mio $; it was shot in mono instead of stereo. Both Cameron and Arnold went on making much more expensive films but none better than this early work. There's a raw energy at work here you won't find in "Terminator 2" or "Aliens". Together with "Alien" this also defined the "female action hero"-theme. Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton had a hard time doing something different from the famale bad-ass for the rest of their careers.Highly recommended!

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BiffMan Indie Sensation

BiffMan

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I have of course watched the hell out of this movie from high school onward, but I think it may have been over 10 years since I last watched it. Given how many of my memories of the Terminator are blurred by T2 and T3, I'm interested to see if this movie can hang with the current crop. Well, the effects are crap. Quite distractingly so, and I'm pretty tolerant on that score. But damn if the rest of the movie isn't still one hell of a masterclass on how to tell a story. A machine from the future is sent back in time to kill the mother of the future leader of the human resistance and a human is sent back in time to stop him. That's it. No wonder Cameron had such a rough time getting a studio to climb on board, but the proof is in the pooding. The man knows what he's doing.

The dialogue is excellent and the characters very believable, which is impressive given the subject matter. We spend a good 10+ minutes of exposition while Biehn is telling Hamilton about the future and why he's here and who the Terminator is. Every single minute of it is completely gripping. Hats off to Cameron and the masterful tension and pacing that allow him to spend so much time on that and give the movie a brain to match the brawn. There's no more consistently excellent story teller this side of Spielberg than Cameron.

Once again, Arnold is his character. His accent is goofy for a cyborg, but really works here and comes off feeling oddly mechanical like they couldn't quite get a human voice right. His delivery is spot-on and the way he moves through a crowd or busts through a door with hardly a blink or reaction really sells you that he's a cold, unfeeling machine focused only on killing Sarah Connor. Here we see Arnold showing real style and flair in what should be a completely limited role. It's not like you're rooting for the Terminator or anything (that comes later), but he's utterly compelling in every scene he's in. Biehn's over-the-top delivery of the "That's what he does, that's ALL he does!" speech still puts a grin on my face and I can't think of a better way to sum up what the Terminator is. Thanks to Arnold for breathing such life into a 2-dimensional and unfeeling villain and giving yet another movie that entertains every bit as well as the first time I watched it nearly 30 years ago. Need to go watch this one again. Soon.

Ahnold Quotient - 7

While it's certainly an iconic role of his, we don't get a whole lot of personality out of him for obvious reasons, so takes us down a bit on the meter.

Rewatchability - Yes please

Could watch this anytime. I may actually want to come back to this more often than T2 and Biehn is a big part of that.

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baumer Cinematic Universe

baumer

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written in 1999

Is there a better person to play a cyborg than Arnold? For this movie he was a massively built oak tree of a man. His strange accent makes for a perfect callous robotic sounding killing machine. It's almost like his voice is a computer read out ( which I guess it is in one sense ). Terminator is one of those films that started something huge. People didn't realize it at the time, but the careers of Arnold, Cameron and perhaps even guys like Micahel Biehn, Lance Henriksen and even Bill Paxton were substantially started because of this film. And Cameron must have liked working with them so much that he gave all of them substantial roles in his next film ( Aliens ).

As we all know what the story is, I'll just tell you a bit about what is so fascinating about it. First I have to mention Michael Biehn. He has the real starring role. He is the character that has to explain everything to the audience. He has to explain this complicated story so that we know what is happening and why. It is not an easy job to do something like that and still come off looking all right. But Biehn is simply awesome in this film. A microcosm of his performance can be seen when Sara bites him. Biehn ( Kyle Reese ) replies " Terminator's don't feel pain. I do. Don't do that again. " That is such a great line delivered with the perfect expression, the perfect tone and the perfect timing. Biehn is perfect for the role.

This is also the first film that I saw as a youngster that ever warned me of the dangers of nuclear war and of the rapid advancements of machinery. Perhaps I was too young and naive to fully understand all that James Cameron was trying to say, but now that I am older, I can honestly say that the two Terminators are perfect anti nuke films. And they are so passionate with what they have to say. I like it when a film has something to say. I enjoy being entertained in the process but if you can manage both then you have a masterpiece. This is a masterpiece.

Finally. there are two other reasons to enjoy this film. One, this is the first film where "I'll be back" was spoken. Now it is part of Arnolds vernacular. Secondly, Bill Paxton is in it. And he adds spark to any film that he's in. Especially here, as the idiot punk leader that really gets the hell beat out of him, he has some great lines.

A great film.

10/10

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Goffe Global Phenomenon

Goffe

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the only Terminator I had yet to see

 

Just bad, really bad. If I had to say something positive about this, it would be the final 5 minutes, that admittedly are excellent. 

I'm surprised I disliked the movie so much because I like all Cameron films

 

35/100

 

Terminator 2 next. Remember liking it a lot, but then again it has been years since I watched T2

Edited by Goffe Ascending
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